In the dusk of a busy day, a light rain watering the park, I set out to capture a day’s impressions. Entering the park at Wells and Skinker, I drove past a long line of vehicles leaving the park (most of them were just passing through, part of the increased traffic burden that the closing of highway 40 has brought). I stopped along Government Drive where it passes through Kennedy Forest to snag a few photos of things that caught my eye before parking on Art Hill to descend to the Grand Basin.

The Grand Basin, with its spectacular view of Art Hill and the St. Louis Art Museum, is certainly one of the best known parts of the park. It is a favorite of both sledders and kite flyers, each in their season. In the dim light of dusk I watched the eddies and ripples in the water and wondered vaguely what caused them. Then I saw the head swimming through the water. Rats! Rats swimming in Forest Park! The Wind in the Willows not withstanding, it did not seem quaint or romantic in the least. The creature I was watching suddenly dived and its wake dissipated across surface of the lake. Then I saw another, and another! I think I saw at least three different rats swimming under one of the bridges and in the lake.

At home I did some research and realized that these were muskrats I was seeing; merely one of at least a dozen different mammals that call the park their home (At least 2 other species of mammal that frequent Forest Park prey on muskrats: foxes, raccoons and, of course, humans, the most dangerous animal in the park). Photos.